Packing for car-axle boxes



WAI'TE'... PACKING FOR GAR AXLE'BOXES.

Patented'Ma'Qr. 2, 1886.-

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UNITED STATES ATENI FFIQE.

ENOCH \VAITE, OF FRANKLIN, MASSACHUSETTS.

PACKING FOR CAR-AXLE BOXES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 336.966, dated March 2,1886.

Application filed August 3, 1885.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ENOOEI WAITE, of Franklin, county of Norfolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lubricant-Packing for Bearings, of which the following is a full,clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the drawings accompanying and forming a part hereof, in which Figure 1 is a central lengthwise section through a railway-car axle and box with my improved packing applied. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 are details.

The object of my invention is the construction of a lubricant vehicle or packing which shall possess great absorbent quality and at the same time be compact, light, and cheap, and not liable to be worn away or destroyed rapidly; and it consists in fibrous felted or woven material in the shape shown and hereinafter more fully described.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts.

A is the axle, and B the axle'box, which contains beneath the axle a lubricant-chamber. As at present commonly used this chamber is filled with waste which has been saturated with oil, and the objections to a packing of waste are that it sags down after a short use, and is liable to settle clear of the axle; it does not retain the oil with which it is saturated, but allows it to escape through the box; some of its threads are liable to get Wound around the axle and by friction ignite, and it is also A frequently gritty from sand and foreign material and operates to roughen or cut the hearing. To obviate these difficulties, I construct my packing from strips d of felt of any desired width, which are laid side by side, so that the cut edges of the strips form the surfaceof the block or piece D. This block D is made of sufficient width to fill the box and deep enough to fill the space between the bottom of the box and the axle. If desired, it may be of less depth, and may have a strip of wood or other material, E, placed under it, as shown, to hold it up against the axle. The strips forming the block are secured together in any suitable manner. I prefer, however, to use a piece of cord, a, which is run through them by the aid of a needle and the ends tied, as shown. The

Serial No. 173,376. (No model.)

block thus formed is flexible, absorbent, and yields the lubricant to the axle readily, acting as a series of fine brushes. For some purposes, as in lubricating the axle-bearings of locomotive driving-wheels, I use this block alone in the box; but for car-axles I prefer to place a separate piece, F, out in a shape to fill the back of the box and fit closely around the axle. or dust from entering the inner end of the box, and also tends to keep any surplus oil from escaping from the box. I also place a fiat piece of felt, H, in the front part of the box just inside the door, which actsin like manner to protect the lubricant packing and axle from sand or other foreign matter entering at the outer end of the box. Thelubricant packing, being in one block or piece, may be easily put into the box or withdrawn from it, and, being flexible and compressible, may be crowded into and made to fill the box throughout the space underneath the exposed portion of the axle.

As will be obvious, other fibrous material may be substituted in my packing for felt as, for example, a series of layers of woven fabric secured together to form a thick bat, which may be cut into strips and used to construct my packing. I prefer felt, however, as being the most desirable substance for this use.

I am aware that felt has been used for lubricant-packing. Such a use of it is shown in Letters Patent to P. S. Devlan, No. 113,860, dated April 18, 1871, and I do not therefore claim it, broadly.

-I am also aware that packing-pads of felt or other material have heretofore been used'in journal-boxes, as shown by patent to S. A. Bemis, No. 306,572, dated October 14, 1884; but in such case the pads were placed so that the material impinged fiatwise against the journals, thus compressing the packing in such a manner that the lubricant could not flow so This intercepting piece prevents sand freely to the journal as in my arrangement .ICO

an intercepting layer filling the rear portion same material laid against the end of the axle, of the box and fitting closely around the axle, whereby the axle and packing are protected [0 forthepurposesandsubstantiallyasdescribed. from sand and dust, substantially as shown 2. The combination,with acar box and axle, and described. 5 of a block for supplying the lubricant to the ENOCH WAITE.

bearing, consisting of a series of strips of Witnesses:

felted or woven fibrous material laid and sei WM. A. MAoLEoD,

M. A. THOMPSON.

cured together, and a protecting-piece of the 

